Thursday, October 6, 2016

Fortnight Ending 9 October 2016

Last week Miss 15 was out of town competing at the national trampoline championship. It was great event for her. She won a gold medal in her individual event - her first-ever first placing at the national level! Two days after that she and her friend also won gold in the synchronised event.

These really are both gold! Obviously the lighting wasn't great.

I'm really proud of her and pleased for her - just disappointed I couldn't be there to share it with her. Some of the excitement had worn off by the time she got home. Below is one of her routines - sadly not the best one (her friend messed up the videoing of that one) and the quality isn't great. With any luck I'll get better videos and photos soon.

This week has been pretty low key, partly because she is recovering from last week and partly because she's got some bug which is sapping her energy. She did attend a course for gymnastics coaches at her gym. She mainly coaches trampoline but also coaches one gymnastics class each week. The course was the first two days after nationals, so less than ideal timing. She considered not going but her natural diligence won out!

She's back into trampoline training and is delighted to have mastered one new skill already - on the first day her coach started teaching it. Since she is notoriously slow to gain new skills this was a major accomplishment and she was really buzzing when the session was over. It made the hefty training fees worthwhile!

After having to postpone twice (first I was sick, then it hailed) we managed a successful birding trip to a reserve on the outskirts of town. I say succesful since we did see the bird we were after but the views weren't great so we may go back in hopes of a better look. At least it wasn't too far to drive or too far to walk. Driving for a couple of hours, then walking for more than an hour and then missing the birds we were after or only getting unsatisfactory views is really frustrating. All part of birding though.

The rest of the time has been spent in the kitchen baking, relaxing with good books, and exercising her brain a little with some logic puzzles.